Here are three types of social media services your marketing agency can offer to customers.

Become a social media interpreter
Data is easy to come by. Actionable interpretation is not. That’s where the interpreter comes in. As an interpreter, the social agency observes, documents, analyzes, and reports findings to the client. The client is fed spoonfuls of actionable insights that steadily grow its business.

Focus groups are tedious, expensive, and often misleading. Listening platforms provide accurate data in real-time. In essence, listening platforms have provided agencies with access to data that research firms get paid handsomely to collect and interpret. Agencies can now be the research firm and provide clients with regular insights that can impact their marketing positioning, product development and more.

Consider offering a SWOT analysis, competitive assessment or an audit of the customer's current social media activity as services.

Become a social media tour guide
The agency as tour guide escorts the client into the social era and beyond, explaining every landmark along the way. The tour guide advises where to direct eyes and ears and how to assimilate with the locals. They also veer the client away from crime-infested neighborhoods and toward serene sandy beaches with a clear map and sage advice.

The tour guide helps the client’s C-level executives understand why social media matters as well as how it can support its business goals so that social principles eventually become infused into day-to-day business functions.

Consider offering social media training sessions or documentation on subjects like earned media, listening for customer feedback, or prospecting for new leads on social media.

Become a social media ally
As an ally, the agency serves as a strategic extension of the client’s marketing department. When the client needs help, the agency steps in to support an operation in ways complementary to the client’s efforts, whether that’s devising a strategic undertaking, executing a campaign, or banding together to manage an online community.